This guy can switch-in on Close Combat if at full health and stuff, afterwards, he can set up TR and kill Drifblim given some prior damage. It has no chance of switching in to any other moves but Sawk's CC and Ice Punch, and it doesn't knock out Driflblim, so this is where my next mon comes into place.

Shiftry @ Life Orb
Trait: Chlorophyll
EVs: 252 Spd / 252 Atk / 4 SDef
Adamant Nature
- Swords Dance
- Seed Bomb
- Sucker Punch
- Nature Power
This thing can come in on the Driflblim at all times, lure Close Combat and Ice Punch, as well as stoping the Sawk from switching in as it will get OHKOed by the combination of Seed Bomb+Sucker Punch

So what happens if Sawk uses Stone Edge? I know it's not accurate, but you do not have a safe switch-in to Sawk at all. At least have Regenerator on Duosion (might be too late).

Drifblim may also not be tempted to switch out of Shuftry due to Sucker Punch being your only effective move on Drifblim. Drifblim's speed advantage also forces Shiftry to play along with Blimp's mindgames.

While Seed Bomb 3HKOes, so does boosted Shadow Ball (via Ghost Gem or Calm Mind), and it can either Calm Mind in your face and/or Substitute to stall out Life Orb damage while dodging Sucker Punch. Shiftry cannot risk failing to attack/break the Sub as it will otherwise eat another Shadow Ball to the face. Even if Drifblim goes down, if Duosion was struck beforehand by Stone Edge/Earthquake, Sawk can simply clean up with CB Earthquake.

So, the worst case scenario is when Sawk is in and uses Stone Edge on whatever. Duosion can't even hurt Sawk at all before it dies, and Shiftry gets off a negligible Sucker punch before it falls. But Duosion gets in for free, and proceeds to set up a TR. Sawk falls next turn to Psychic, but Duosion as at best 46% HP, and cannot OHKO Drifblim before Duosion is easily destroyed.

Of course, there could be a bit of hax involved, if Sawk misses any of his first two SE's the core survives, but that probability is low enough for me to claim that those two sets do not form a true counter.

Well good luck with the Normal hunt. Considering even max Attack Adamant Skunk's Crunch OHKOes Blimp only 90% of the time, few Normal types can claim to match, much less exceed that power while forgoing its boosting item to avoid getting brutalized by Close Combat.

If Sawk Stays in
you need a Higher than medium roll, (I think it was a 43.25% chance or soemthing) to OHKO. If you don't get it then you can bring Murkrow in for free to Brave Bird (or even Sucker Punch [Sucker Punch: 17.86 - 21.3%]

Once Sawk has been Felled, beating Drifblim is easy.If you still have Gardevoir Thunderbolt as it Shadow Balls - Sub will be broken regardless - and it can only sub once. It doesn't matter if it uses calm mind, there is a chance of it being 2kho'd (even after the boost)
Else, you can just use T-Bolt.
shadow ball will KO Gardevoir.

If you just have Murkrow
You can just use the combination of Taunt + Sucker Punch to beat Drifblim 1 v 1 (SP is an OHKO) ThunderBolt doesn't KO.

So the main point is that Tangela will do most of the stalling, while Piloswine is there to help Tangela counter Drifblim better and force it to use its Ghost Gem early.

If Sawk is in, the best thing ever would be to switch in Tangela. Tangela walls Sawk to no end, taking just 48% from Close Combat. From there, Tangela can spam Synthesis until Sawk has used Close Combat four times, each time dropping to no less than 2% HP, allowing Tangela to OHKO -4 SDef Sawk with Giga Drain.

Assuming Sawk used Ice Punch instead, Tangela should immediately switch out to Piloswine, recovering a tad bit of HP which is important. Even without much investment, Piloswine takes just 21% max damage from Ice Punch, allowing it to set up a free sub on the switch / attack. If Sawk stays in, Piloswine can easily use Icicle Spear, leave its substitute intact, and rest. If Sawk switches out on any of the turns, Piloswine can Icicle Spear Drifblim to nearly kill. From behind a sub, Drifblim is forced to use its Ghost Gem to break it since Piloswine is immune to Thunderbolt completely. Ice Shard picks off whatever that is left of Drifblim.

Once Drifblim’s Ghost Gem has been used up, Piloswine can use Rest to heal off all damage and get ready for another onslaught, since Drifblim’s Shadow Ball deals pitiful damage. At this point, Piloswine can proceed to KO with Icicle Spear + Ice Shard. If Sawk shows its dirty face, it will get hit by Icicle Spear and leave enough damage for Tangela to take it out with Giga Drain at -1, followed by HP Ice against Drifblim. If Sawk comes in for the revenge kill, simply switch Tangela back out and win.

If Drifblim is on the field, Piloswine should be the first switch-in. It takes little from Drifblim’s Ghost Gem Shadow Ball, and if it comes in on a Sub, it easily uses Icicle Spear + Ice Shard combo to KO it. If it comes in on CM, same story except you take a little more damage than before.

Calcs:

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Yeah, seems as if I have to give up my 1 Pokémon dream... Rotom-S was the closest thing I could find without relying on speed-ties with Sawk, but then Drifblim wins by virtue of Ghost gem unburden Shadow-ball, followed by the mind games of Sub and CM, since Rotom is forced to attempt to Thunder to KO at +1... There was no normal-type either that could manage to 1HKO and outspeed both Drifblim and Sawk. Dodrio and Pidgeot came close, but neither could one-shot Drifblim.

Anyhow, before I get ninja'd for the 3rd time, reserving Zangoose and Rotom-S.

So, assuming that Sawk is in. Send in Rotom, and they either switch or attack and take Rotom down to his sash with whatever. If they switch, giving us Rotom vs Drifblim, I just Thunderbolt for a 98% chance to KO, and then Air slash + Shadow claw guarantees the kill on Sawk. If there is no switch, giving me 100% Sawk vs 1% Rotom, I use Air slash to bring Sawk down to at most 8% HP. If Rotom then dies, Zangoose comes in, KOs Sawk, and 2HKOs Drifblim while Drifblim can only hurt Zangoose once with Thunderbolt. So the core wins when Sawk is in 98% of the time, disregarding crits and random paralysis.

If Drifblim is instead in, send in Zangoose, and use Shadow claw no matter what your opponent did the previous turn. If they switched, Shadow claw put Sawk into Air slash KO range, and they can't kill Zangoose with Drifblim before Zangoose 2HKOs Drifblim. From there, Sawk switches in, gets Shadow claw'd, kills Zangoose, but is then taken out by the revenge-killing Rotom-S.

This means that assuming a showdown between Drif and Krow. You Taunt first turn, Drif uses Thunderbolt. You Sucker Punch, don't kill, and get KO'd by Thunderbolt.

Thus your core doesn't work.

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Sucker Punch vs Sawk

I did also Assume perfect prediction. You taunt against the Sub which would give the Blim user a lot more Wiggle room, else, there's nothing stopping you from Sucker Punching twice at all. It still works.

SJ is a Dumb and hasn't made it clear if it's Speed or Special Def EV's on Sawk.

A re-tweak of the EV's to
252hp /8 Def / 200 S.Atk / 44 Spe
Gives Gardevoir an easier time vs Sawk - Allowing it to still switch into Sawk's Stone Edge

If Persian comes in on Drifblim as it substitutes then you can bite to break the sub, follow up with Hypnosis and set up Hone Claws. Or if Persian comes in on Calm Mind or Thunderbolt then you can just Hypnosis and set up.

The best play from the Sawk players point of view would probably be to allow Persian to hypnosis Drifblim and then switch to Sawk as Persian uses Hone Claws hoping that they fail to KO with Aerial Ace
​

Uh, besides the whole Hypnosis accuracy thing, there's another problem. If Sawk starts in, then CC brings Persian down to 1 HP. Assuming Hypnosis hits, next turn switch to Drifblim as Persian gets +1. You have only a 51% chance to KO at that point, though if you factor in Bite's flinch chance, Drifblim KOs you 35% of the time. That's even assuming that Hypnosis hits, so Persian wins... 55% * 65% = 35% of the time when Sawk's in. I wouldn't exactly call that a counter.

Uh, besides the whole Hypnosis accuracy thing, there's another problem. If Sawk starts in, then CC brings Persian down to 1 HP. Assuming Hypnosis hits, next turn switch to Drifblim as Persian gets +1. You have only a 51% chance to KO at that point, though if you factor in Bite's flinch chance, Drifblim KOs you 35% of the time. That's even assuming that Hypnosis hits, so Persian wins... 55% * 65% = 35% of the time when Sawk's in. I wouldn't exactly call that a counter.

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You can hit Drifblim on the switch with Bite to 2HKO it and finish off Sawk with Aerial Ace.

Reserving Purugly for now. Need to run some calcs to see whether it actually works like I want it to. Also, before I try this, how inaccurate a move is considered too inaccurate for this? What I'm thinking of trying would also involve using Hypnosis, so I'm just wondering if that's considered too low for this.

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sj said grasswhistle wasn't good enough so i'm not so sure on hypnosis either

sj said grasswhistle wasn't good enough so i'm not so sure on hypnosis either

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True, I'm not sure I'd accept hynosis once (probably not) but now you need to put to sleep both mons which you have less than 50% chance of achieving. Anyways, one turn sleep is possible and I think that turn happens to be the one you lose using hypnosis meaning the opponent could wake up on the next turn and it wouldn't have changed a thing.

Also, I might be pretty busy for a while which would imply I'd leave this round open a little longer than others.

2) If Drifblim goes for Substitute, then just go for Encore, then Sunny Day, then hard switch into Charizard, go for Flamethrower. After breaking the Substitute, (NOTE: encore turns have ended now), go for another flamethrower, knock it out. Then knock Sawk out as well with an Air Slash if sun turns have ended.

3) If Drifblim goes for Shadow Ball as you switch into Volbeat, go for Thunder Wave, then Encore, then Sunny Day (NOTE: this is where Volbeat dies already), then go into Charizard, go for Flamethrower, knock it out as well as Sawk in the next turn.

Also, fuck this thing. Just spent way too long trying to find something. All kinds of things can outspeed and OHKO both of these, but hardly anything can switch it. I found something with a Physical Drifblim that would work, but it needed a partner to clean up. The issue is you never know what situation in needs to clean up in. Maybe next time? :\/

Also, fuck this thing. Just spent way too long trying to find something. All kinds of things can outspeed and OHKO both of these, but hardly anything can switch it. I found something with a Physical Drifblim that would work, but it needed a partner to clean up. The issue is you never know what situation in needs to clean up in. Maybe next time? :\/

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Actually, it's 252hp/252spdef (idk how I messed up again :/) but either way, volbeat can still live Sawk's stone edge with the focus sash intact, so it's not that big of a deal I guess.

Basically Purugly is only here to keep Haunter faster than Drifblim, because it's immune to Shadow Ball. If Sawk is out, sack Purugly and bring in Haunter. Kill Sawk with Psychic and Drifblim with Shadow Ball. If Drifblim is out, send in Purugly. If Drifblim kills it, send in Sawk and kill them both. If Purugly tries to set up, spam Shadow Claw until it gives up and kills you. Both Haunter's moves do enough damage to each that they can't just stall for Life Orb recoil. Even if Drifblim sets up a Calm Mind, it will still be OHKOed by Haunter because it will have to eat a Shadow Claw from Purugly (though really, it can't do enough damage to avoid having to take a Shadow Claw from Purugly).